The Dutch wife

Keith's lackluster debut tells the stories of an SS officer in love with a married Dutch woman who's been forced into prostitution by the Nazis in 1943, and the disappearance of a student revolutionary some 30 years later in Argentina. After being arrested in Amsterdam, beautiful Marijke de Graaf is separated from her beloved husband, Theo. Upon learning that Theo has been taken to Buchenwald, she accepts an offer to work there in the prisoners' brothel. There, she catches the eye of Karl Müller, an officer on the rise who is ambivalent about Nazi ideology, and becomes romantically involved with him while still holding a torch for Theo. This story dovetails with that of Luciano Wagner, a student in Buenos Aires in 1977, who's kidnapped by government officials who are trying to quash an uprising. Luciano is only tangentially involved with the movement, drawn to it mostly by his crush on his friend Fabián, but he's nonetheless interrogated and tortured. With the help of Gabriel, a fellow prisoner, he's later assigned a job handling top-secret files, which he tries to smuggle out. On top of the uneven writing, Keith's characterization of Karl as a conflicted man trying to be two people is handled without nuance, as is Luciano's strained relationship with his disapproving father. The novel's two stories conflate in a poignant resolution, but it isn't enough to rescue an unsuccessful narrative. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

[DEBUT] Arrested by the Nazis for her participation in the Dutch resistance, Marijke de Graaf makes a desperate choice in the hopes of being reunited with her husband: she volunteers to work in a concentration camp brothel. Once there, she quickly captures the notice of high-ranking Nazi Karl Müller, whose passionate attraction to Marijke alters both of their lives. Debut novelist Keith explores this strange romance while also introducing readers to Luciano Wagner, a young man arrested and tortured by police in 1977 Buenos Aires. Readers' enjoyment will depend on their willingness to accept Karl and Marijke's peculiar relationship as plausible rather than deeply disturbing, particularly as Karl's perspective quickly dominates the narrative, while Marijke's thoughts and feelings remain frustratingly underdeveloped even after she learns of Karl's war crimes. Luciano's story line is more compelling but never quite jells with the rest of the book despite the eventually revealed connections. VERDICT Readers looking for historical fiction about the horrors of the concentration camps would do better to seek out Martha Hall Kelly's Lilac Girls, Affinity Konar's Mischling, or Heather Morris's The Tattooist of Auschwitz.-Mara Bandy Fass, Champaign P.L., IL © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.